Secrecy News

CDC Policy on “Sensitive But Unclassified”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated and revised its policy on “sensitive but unclassified” (SBU) information, the increasingly common twilight category of information that is neither classified nor publicly released.

“Marking information SBU does not automatically qualify it for a public release exemption,” the CDC policy observes. (There is no “SBU exemption” to the Freedom of Information Act.)

On the other hand, “the absence of the SBU or other related marking does not necessarily mean the information should be publicly released.”

“Therefore, all information should be reviewed and approved prior to its public release,” the CDC instructs.

A copy of the revised SBU policy was posted on the CDC intranet and obtained by Secrecy News.

The Government Accountability Office will publish a major report on the use of Sensitive But Unclassified control markings next month.